Insulation tips to finish off your basement

Q. I am interested in your opinion on the best way to insulate an unfinished basement before we set out to finish it (both floors and walls). We live in a new house (built less than three years ago). Our basement has a poured-concrete slab and concrete block walls. Overall our basement is pretty dry, no puddling, but there is moisture in the blocks during the wet months. We have a very high water table, with a sump pump that runs quite often after it rains. Ultimately we will be putting engineered hardwood flooring over much of the space and ceramic tile on the rest. My major concerns are possible moisture problems and overall comfort - we want a warmer space, especially the floors. I'm offered too many options by "professionals" and found even more on the Internet.A. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that the grade around the foundation is sloping away. This is the best way to control surface water, which could dry your block wall up. If you have walks, a patio, a driveway or a stoop that pitches toward the house, this needs to be corrected. Low grade underneath a deck or a porch is also a problem. Otherwise, having wet blocks is not conducive to finishing the walls - a risk factor for the formation of mold behind the new finish. Once you have taken care of this problem, there are other considerations before insulating the walls. Unless you are sure that there is an effective drainage system at the base of the foundation (the sump pump seems to take care of the high water table, so you may be OK there) and that the backfill was done with coarse material that drains well and is not affected by frost, it is safer to insulate no deeper than 2 feet below grade. This will allow a modicum of heat to conduct through the foundation to keep the soil from freezing deeply, which could crack your block walls. Soil temperature does not change much from 50 degrees a few feet below grade, so the heat loss through uninsulated walls is not that severe.Since you intend to install a hardwood floor on most of the slab, try applying 6-mil plastic to it, adding 1-inch thick XPS (extruded polystyrene) rigid insulation. Topping the slab with 5/8 plywood shot with power studs may make sense to keep the new hardwood floor off the slab, which can be wicking moisture from the subsurface, unless a plastic vapor retarder was laid before the concrete was poured. This would not be necessary if you tiled the entire floor or laid a synthetic pad and carpet. The walls can also be insulated down to a safe depth with XPS rigid foam insulation adhered to clean block walls with polyurethane caulking or StyroBond. Follow this with 2-inch by 4-inch studs and staple R-13 fiberglass between them, but no lower than the bottom of the XPS. Finish the job with whatever wall covering you choose.Q. I have been an avid reader of your column for many years and also own your book. I have talked with some roofers and have looked online. There are many different opinions on which is the best way to go. My house is a typical two-story colonial. My roof/attic currently has two gable vents, a couple of roof vents and a power fan in the roof (I have soffits but no vents). I think it gets fair ventilation, no signs of any mold or mildew. It is hot in the attic in summer, but I don't know if this is "normal attic hot." It seems your recommendation (and some others that I read online) for roofing/attic ventilation is to use soffit vents and a full-length externally baffled ridge vent. Is this correct and why? I'd like to explain to a roofer why I want this type of attic ventilation. Do you have recommendations on a shingle brand? Also, I get some moss on the north side of my roof. I know this is not harmful, but do not like the way it looks. Are there any shingles that are "moss resistant" or do I just need to clean it off? A. In every situation, consider what makes the most sense with what's available. Although the best ventilation system is a combination of full-length soffit and ridge vents with an unrestricted air space between the two, if any element of this combination is missing and cannot easily be provided, there is no reason to change it if it's currently working. In your case, if it is possible to add soffit vents and an externally baffled ridge vent at a reasonable cost when you re-roof, it may be worth considering. But you would have to eliminate the existing roof vents and fan and seal the gable vents to avoid interference with proper ventilation. Be sure that you insist on an externally baffled ridge vent like Shinglevent II. Unbaffled ridge vents do not function effectively under windy conditions, as the wind tends to stop the exhaust from the attic, which stops the intake from the soffits. All attics will feel hot in summer, even with soffit and ridge venting. This is what accelerates the thermosiphon that ventilates the attic. But effective ventilation should make a hot attic bearable; without it, you couldn't stay in there very long. Be aware that a roof fan seldom has enough intake air in the attic to satisfy its CFM (cubic feet per minute) rating, so it draws what else it needs from the living spaces. In the winter, it robs you of heat and in the summer of air-conditioning. When you re-roof, you may want to eliminate the fan and the roof vents, and stay with the gable vents. If there are no convective paths for warm, moist conditioned air to get into the attic, you should be OK. From the research I have done, and the experience of contractors I work with, it seems that BP shingles are not as prone to early failure as some of the other more popular brands around. That is the brand I recently had put on our house. There are shingles that are claimed to be algae-resistant, but I am not sure they would prevent the growth of moss. One way to keep any type of growth from a roof is to install zinc or copper strips just below the ridge cap or ridge vent (if you decide to change your ventilation system). You can buy Shingle Shield or StainhandleR zinc strips from Rainhandler's website: www.rainhandler.com.Q. My 55-year-old house needs a new roof. The chimney at the summit is faced with cement or concrete that is fashioned to look like gray stone - approximately 11/2 to 2 inches in height and separated by recesses that mimic mortar joints. It is in really bad shape, and I think it needs replacement. For years, I've covered its cracks with roof cement, so it looks hideous, too. What is the best material to replace it? Is a mason or some other specialist the right expert to do the job, and what should I look for or insist on? Part of the front of my house is faced with the same cement "stonework," but I'm not wedded to it as a replacement for the chimney. There's another chimney on an addition, farther back and less visible, that is red brick. Regarding the chimney, one of the roofers I've spoken to said he would seal it, as it doesn't look too great, either. Is that routine for a roofing job? A. A competent mason is the person to repair the stonework on the chimney, unless the damage is too extensive to be worth saving. It is very unlikely that it can be removed entirely and successfully without damaging the masonry to which it is attached or without leaving unattractive residue. The chimney will likely need to receive some other coating. It may be possible to apply a new coating over the stonework - the chimney cap may have to be replaced as well - or the stonework may have to be removed. It may be less expensive to tear the chimney down to the roofline and replace it. Consult an experienced mason to decide the best way to go. Applying a siloxane-based sealer to the brick chimney is a good idea, but it is not standard procedure when replacing a roof and will not improve the look of the bricks. If you need to improve the look of the chimney, consider having the bricks coated with a cementitious mix with the color of your choice. Obviously, all this work will need to be done before you put on the new roof.Q. My home is 30 years old. Condensation appears on my ceiling and walls during winter months. I have an in-furnace humidifier and try to adjust its setting per temperature, but it doesn't help. What do you think my problem is?A. If the condensation only occurs on the rafter and stud locations, it sounds as if you have an insulation problem. But if the condensation is widespread, you should stop using the humidifier; you have too much humidity in the house. You didn't say where you live, but obviously the relative humidity is too high, regardless of the reason. You can check it out by buying an inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer with an RH (relative humidity) feature. The RH shouldn't be over 30 percent; it may even need to be less to eliminate the condensation.Q. We enjoy the daily newspaper while sitting at our kitchen island. However, over the course of five years, the countertop appears to have picked up the black newsprint. I wipe it down several times a day, but the black seems ingrained into the surface. I've tried many household cleaners including Clorox Clean-up, Windex Multi-Surface, Turtle Wax and many others. Nothing seems to get it clean. Short of replacing all my countertops, do you have any idea what would work? A. Try Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound. Another reader wrote to tell me that it removed stubborn stains from her plastic-laminate top, which no other product had been able to do.Q. We just had an on-demand Rinnai hot water heater installed. The problem is that they relocated it farther away from the bathroom, and it takes longer to get the hot water from the tap. Is there anything we can do besides running the water for five minutes and wasting water or rerunning the pipes? We have already wrapped the pipes with insulation to help keep the heat in.A. You can have a Laing ACT-909-Tankless Recirculation Pump installed by a licensed plumber. It will bring hot water to all faucets very quickly. bull; Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. Write to him in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or via e-mail at henridemarne@gmavt.net.#169; 2009, United Feature Syndicate Inc.